


Rachel's Story

by candybuttons



Series: Now What [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Gen, High School
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-12
Updated: 2015-02-16
Packaged: 2018-02-25 02:16:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 17,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2604908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/candybuttons/pseuds/candybuttons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the story of Rachel Elizabeth Dare's life while she's at the Clarion Ladies academy. Mean girls, monsters, and mystery oh my!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Let's be friends: letstalkwriting.tumblr.com

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to r&r, constructive criticism is always appreciated and flames will be used to roast marshmallows.

I woke up at nine thirty in the morning, the fancy new alarm clock that my dad just had to buy me beeping and buzzing. As soon as I sat up a feeling of dread overcame me. It was September third, the day that we were going to make the five-hour car trip from upstate New York to The Clarion Ladies Academy in Hartford, Connecticut. Ugh. That school was going to be filled with the brats of the rich and aristocratic, if Dad hadn't allowed me to bring two of my friends, and they were coming for protection more than anything else, I don't know what I would do.

"Miss Rachel, your father sent me to...oh good, you're already awake. Mr. Dare sent me to wake you up and tell you that you're going to leave in an hour and to make sure your guests are ready." Melody told me. Melody is the current housekeeper, and I'm surprised she's lasted this long. She seems nice enough, but nobody ever works at the Dare household for very long; either they fold clothes incorrectly (I don't see why that's just a problem), forget to garden my mother's tomato garden (she only has it to brag about how she 'Spends time with the earth' when her bridge club comes over), or prepare a dinner that has one too many calories for the diet that Mom thinks she needs to be on (once again, don't see the problem with this).

"Okay, I'll go get them," I sighed; this was going to be a long day. I grabbed a pair of purple jeans with rips and paint splatters, and an off-white t-shirt. Everybody else was probably going to be decked out in designer goods and ten pounds worth of jewelry; I was definitely going to make an entrance.

I put on my fuzzy moose foot slippers (they were a Birthday present from Percy) and walked out of my room and into the bathroom. I brushed my teeth as fast as I could, ran down the stairs and out the back door. I cut across my mother's tomato garden, it's not like she actually gardened in it anyway, and into the guesthouse. The guesthouse was small compared to the main house, but I always felt terrible about it; the guesthouse alone was triple the size of Percy's apartment, and double the size of Annabeth's house. I walked in through the big double doors and toward the bedroom where my friends Angie Jasper (well I suppose if I was really being formal I should call her Angelica, but nobody ever does), and Zoey Drake had slept. Angie was already awake and dressed, being organized was one of her many talents, but Zoey was still asleep.

"Hey Angie," I called.

"Hey Rachel, can you help me wake up Zoey? Daughters of Hypnos don't like to wake up, and I've been trying to get this particular one awake for an hour." It took both of us shaking her and yelling in her ears for a good three minutes before she opened her eyes.

"Zoey, get up! We leave for Hartford in thirty minutes," Angie said.

"What? Twenty minutes? Why didn't you wake me up earlier?" Zoey asked, outraged. I looked at Angie, she looked at me, and we both broke out into a fit of laughter.

"I don't see what's so funny," Zoey told us, which just made us laugh even more.

******************************************************

After we'd all finished getting ready we packed our bags and headed for the car. My dad had decided to rent us a limo, which normally I would have been annoyed about, but it turned out we needed a lot of the room for our school duffels. I sat in the middle of the back with Angie on my left and Zoey on my right. Zoey had her brown hair in a braid. She was wearing a blue hoodie and white skinny jeans that had more holes than mine did. Angie also was wearing her hair in a braid, something that the two of them probably planned so that my so called security council would remotely match, and she had on a t-shirt and jeans. I pulled out my sketchpad and settled in for the journey. 

About half an hour into the trip I finished my first drawing. It was of a girl with spring green eyes, and wavy dark brown hair being hurt by some type of monster. I, being the Oracle of Delphi, every now and then have prophetic visions and sometimes they influence what I draw. This must have been some sort of warning, but what? I couldn't figure out what to make of it, so, I chose to do the only logical thing and ask the daughter of the goddess of wisdom what she thought.

"Angie, look at this drawing."

"What? Oh sorry, I wasn't listening." She took out her earphones and I repeated the question.

"What do you think of this drawing?" She studied the drawing for a minute.

"I think it's a drawing of a girl being mauled by a monster."

"Thank you Sherlock, I got that much. But what do you think it means?"

"I think it means that you were wise to bring us with you."


	2. Chapter 2

I stepped out of the car and looked at the place where I'd be spending the next few years of my life: The Clarion Ladies Academy. It was a tall, commanding redbrick building with gargoyles on the top of the sides and little, manicured rose gardens where most other schools had playgrounds. I already knew that I wasn't going to like it here. The three of us walked out of the limo and into the main building to get our dorm room assignments. I took the lead, with Angie and Zoey closely following.

"Are you looking for the Housing office?" a woman called out. She looked old, probably in her late 50s and wore her hair in a black bob. She had on a red cardigan and a black pencil skirt and looked like she belonged in an auction house, bidding on the latest Picasso to be sold, not the secretary of a finishing school.

"Yeah," I told her.

"Down the hall, the first door to your right."

"Thanks," I heard Angie reply; I was already walking down the hall.

I walked into the housing office, it was a small room with an even smaller woman sitting behind a desktop computer that had to be at least six years old. The woman in this room was much younger, probably about thirty or so years old. She had long blonde hair that was up in a fancy chignon. She was wearing too much makeup and the same red sweater and black skirt as the front desk lady, but hers was much shorter.

"Hi, we're here to register for the first semester and get our dorm assignments," Angie told the woman. She looked at us with a confused expression, with our jeans and makeup-less faces we couldn't have looked less like a Clarion girl.

"Are you sure this is the right school?"

"My name is Rachel Elizabeth Dare."

"Oh! Of course! Ms. Dare, I didn't realize…" She said, quickly trying to explain her mistake.

"Save it," I told her, "For somebody who cares. We just need our room assignments."

"Of course, of course. You three are in Roberts Hall, that's the third building to the right. The three of you will be in room 158, Zoey and Rachel in room 158a; Angie and Janine will be in room 158b."

"I'm sorry, who's Janine?" Angie asked, alarmed.

"The girl you're sharing a room with."

The room was cozy enough. There was a main area with a flat screen, a mini fridge, and a window seat. There were two large couches and a state of the art surround sound system. On either side of the room was a large door, one with "158a" written on it, "158b" on the other. I walked into 158a and found two queen sized beds, on opposite sides of the room. On the left side of each bed was a night table with a lamp on it. There were two big dressers and a white fuzzy rug. I left my room and walked with Angie into her room. When we got in we found a girl sitting on one of the beds. She had thick brown hair, almost auburn in color. It fell in front of her eyes, and went down to her chest. Her eyes were closed, so I thought that she might be asleep, but then I realized that she was listening to her iPod. Angie cleared her throat.

"Hi my name is Angie. This is Rachel and that's Zoey." Janine opened her eyes and took out her earbuds. Her eyes were hazel, with tortoise shell brown and lighter then forest green specks.

"Janine Colt."

"So I guess I'll take this bed," Angie said, pointing at the one Janine wasn't sitting on.

"Yeah, I guess." The rest of the day was spent unpacking. I put all of my art supplies in the top drawer of the nightstand and a few pictures up on the wall. Zoey decorated her side of the room much in the same way, she put a picture of herself and three of the other Hypnos kids on the wall and a small branch dipped in the water from the river Lethe hung from the ceiling.

"Hey, it's time to go down to the cafeteria for dinner," Angie called from the other room.

"Mmkay, coming," I called back. Zoey and I walked outside and met Angie and Janine in the main room. Together we all took the elevator to the ground floor where the Roberts' dorm cafeteria was. I lined up to get food and nearly laughed out loud, what were the food choices? Salad with low-fat dressing options? Whole-wheat pasta with no butter, cheese, and a barely there serving of tomato sauce? Who ate this kind of stuff? I passed a girl with bright red hair talking to her friends, complaining about the "Lack of Low-calorie options," and "How the food in this place was like, totally going to make her fat." Really? So that was the type of person my dad wanted me to be. As if. I grabbed some spicy salmon sushi and sat at the table Janine was sitting at.

"Hey, I think Angie told you earlier, but my name is Rachel."

"Yeah, she told me," Janine replied. I started to get the feeling that Janine didn't like to talk. Zoey and Angie joined us at the table and we started to eat.


	3. Chapter 3

"What classes do you have tomorrow?" Angie asked. "I have science, math, and manners in the morning. After lunch I have French, English, art and gym." Leave it to the daughter of Athena to bring up school.

"Oh me too," Zoey exclaimed looking down at her schedule. "Except I have math in the afternoon and gym in the morning." I looked down at my own schedule, Manners 1st period, Greek 2nd, English 3rd, , science 4th, the hour and fifteen minute lunch break, art 6th, and I ended my day with math and then gym.

"I don't have any classes with you guys," I told them sadly.

"What about you Janine?" I asked but she never got to answer. The redheaded girl from the food line walked (strutted would be more appropriate in this situation) over.

"Hi, I'm Gail, and you're sitting at my table."

"I don't see your name on it," Zoey replied, glaring up at her.

"Look, obviously you guys are new here. This is our table, always has been. We've sat here every day, every year since 6th grade. Move." Did this manicured socialite-in-training really think that she could get us to move?

"Was I not speaking English? My name is Gail Warner, you've probably heard of my dad, Jake Warner, you know, the lead guitarist of Scissorhands? I don't want any trouble, so move before i make you." Like Gail could make us do anything. That mortal wouldn't know what hit her if she tried to threatened either Angie or Zoey. 

"Hi. My name is Rachel Elizabeth Dare, yeah Dare as in the company that manufactured just about everything in this room. Don't you know, my name actually is on the table! " I said in a mocking tone. Gail's heavily lined hazel eyes opened wide, I was probably the first person to stand up to her.

"Come on, Lexi," She said to the skinny blonde next to her. Lexi had an overlarge chest, legs that went on for miles, and the shortest pair of shorts. Didn't this school have a uniform? Why was no one enforcing it? Even Drew wore more clothes then that. "Cora and Dana are probably waiting for us by the salad bar." Out of curiosity I looked towards the salad bar. Standing by the salad bar were two girls. One if them had wavy brown hair and eyes so green I could see the color even from the other side of the cafeteria. The more I looked at her, the more sure I was that I had seen her before, but where? The other girl…well, the more I looked at her it became apparent to me that she wasn't a girl after all. She had a bronze right leg and the left leg of a donkey. Do Empousa's like following me? Every time I try to start at a new school they appear! First at the Goode orientation, now here.

"Zoey, pst. Zoey," I said, trying, and failing to get her attention. "Zoey!" I whisper-yelled. Finally I gave up and kicked her in the shin. "Zoey!"

"What?" She glared at me.

"Look at the blonde by the salad bar. Tell me if you think there's anything…off about her," I said choosing my words carefully. I couldn't just call her a monster with Janine sitting at our table could I? She turned and I saw her eyes open wide.

"Angie," she said kicking her under the table. "Look!" Angie had almost the same reaction as Zoey, the glare and wide eyes look.

"What are we looking at?" Janine asked.

"Oh, it's just that girl over there, by the salad bar. I think I've seen her before," Angie said quickly. It's always handy having a daughter of Athena on your side.

"Her name is Cora, our families belong to the same country club, but that's all I know about her." Janine said, avoiding looking us in the eye.   
We finished eating in silence, all of us absorbed in our own thoughts. About two minutes after I finished my sushi classical music started to play. I turned to Angie for an explanation.

"It's an experiment some schools are trying, they believe classical music provides a better learning environment then bells," she said, answering my unasked question.

"Oh." We picked up our trays and walked back to our room.

"Angie, will you join us in our room?" I asked her, we needed a way to talk about the Empousa without Janine overhearing. She would probably think that we were crazy if she overheard us.

"Sure, I'll come later."

Angie came in and closed the door behind her as soon as Janine fell asleep.

"Zoey, she's asleep. Do your thing." As a daughter of Hypnos, Zoey can make sure that those asleep stay asleep.

"Cora's an Empousa," Angie said. "But I don't get it. We're two already claimed demigods and the oracle of Delphi. We're not even all that powerful, all things considered, no children of the big three or anything! Usually two demigods isn't enough to attract a major monster like an Empousa, if there were more of us then I would understand, but there's only us."

"Unless…" I ran to get my sketchbook

"Rachel, what are you talking about? Are there other demigods here?"

"Her." I opened the book to the drawing from earlier, the one of the girl with wavy brown hair and spring green eyes being mauled by an Empousa. And then it hit me.

"Guys, this girl is here at school. She was standing over near Cora-err, the Empousa at the salad bar. Didn't you see her? She was one of the girls that Gail was talking to, what was her name? Dana I think. What is this isn't a warning for us, but for her?"


	4. Chapter 4

"What if it is?" Angie asked. "There are four of them right? Gail, Dana, Lexi and 'Cora'. The four of them are friends; they might even share a room. We can't exactly protect her."

"We don't even know her. If we warn her about Cora she won't believe us," Zoey added.

"Do you think Janine brought a laptop?" Angie asked suddenly.

"I don't know, maybe. Why?" I asked.

"If I can get a computer I can change her schedule so that she always has one of us in her class."

"There's a desktop in the main room. I think they probably have it there for homework purposes. Will that work?" Zoey asked.

"There's a desktop? Where?" Angie questioned. Zoey opened the door and pointed out. Sure enough, there was an iMac. "How did I miss that?" Angie said, shaking her head. "Maybe I'm losing it." We walked over to the desk area and the computer. Angie sat down in front of it; Zoey and I sat down on the couch.

"This might take awhile. You guys can go to sleep or watch TV or something," Angie said, furiously punching keys. Oh, sometimes it's great being friends with a daughter of Hypnos, you can watch TV while your roommates are asleep and not worry about waking them up.

"What do you want to watch?" We put on some old western, I must have fallen asleep at some point because I opened my eyes and it was morning. Zoey was conked out next to me on the couch. I didn't see Angie, so I figured she must have been smart enough to go back into her own room to sleep.

"Zoey!" I poked her arm.

"What's going on?" She looked around the room sleepily and yawned. "What time is it?"

"I dunno," I looked around the room, trying to figure out in my groggy state where exactly the wall clock was. "About 4:30 in the morning."

"Did we fall asleep?"

"I guess we-yawn-Must have."

"Let's go back into our room."

"Yeah, that's a good idea." We sleepily tromped back into our part of the space. As soon as I hit the bed I was out.

***Page Break***

I woke up at around seven fifteen. Zoey was still snoring away, and I took that golden opportunity to take my shower and brush my teeth. With a normal roommate, I might have wanted to wait until they were awake until a shower, but daughters of Hypnos can sleep through anything. Once, the Hephaestus cabin was working on a project and it exploded. Long story short, Chiron evacuated the whole camp and the Hypnos cabin slept through the whole thing. There was Greek fire all over the place; part of the Hypnos cabin was on fire! All of the kids though, they were inside snoring away.

After I'd finished getting ready I got dressed in the Clarion Ladies Academy uniform. The uniform was made up of a maroon blazer with yellow/gold lining and a Clarion Ladies Academy crest on the right breast pocket. There was a matching maroon pleated skirt that went down to about my knees. I heard a knock on the door and ran over to let Angie in.

"Hey."

"Hey Rachel, where's Zoey?" I pointed at the bed across the room.

"Over there."

"She's still sleeping? Rachel, class starts in ten minutes and we haven't even had breakfast yet!"

"Well you kept us up until three last night."

"Do you want Dana to be mauled? We need to get her to trust us, that way we can take her to camp."

"Speaking of Dana, did you manage to change her classes?"

"Yeah. Every class is now with at least one of us."

"Hey guys, what time is it?" I heard a voice from the other side of the room say.

"Zoey! You're awake." I yelled.

"Zoey it's seven fifty! Class starts in ten minutes!" That seemed to get her attention. She jumped out of bed and grabbed her uniform, which was ever so conveniently tossed on the chair. She was dressed in five minutes flat, together the three of us ran out of the room and into the hallway. Our dorms were on the second floor of Roberts hall, the bottom floor being where the cafeteria and student lounge were. We ran into the elevator and I pressed the 'Close Door' button about fifty times. The elevator finally reached the 1st floor and we ran out of the building. I turned left to go to the Manners & Language Arts building; luckily it was one of the closer buildings. I waved goodbye to Zoey and Angie and took off in the direction of the big Limestone building. I pushed opened the door and looked back down at my schedule, room 23, where exactly was room 23? I looked at the door on my left, it was room 19. I jogged down the hall and pushed open the door.

"Rachel Dare," the teacher's voice called.

"Here." I responded from the doorway.

"You're lucky," she told me. "Ten more seconds and I would have marked you as tardy. You can sit at the open seat." I looked at the seat, it was two seats away from Dana, and three away from Cora.


	5. Chapter 5

To say Greek was easy for me would have been the understatement of the century. Since I'd decided to be the oracle this past summer my whole life had been turned around. Instead of worrying about normal tennage girl things, like when I would get to see the hunger games movie (a/n I saw it on Friday, pm me to talk if you want to) I had to be stuck worrying about whether or not I would suddenly speak a prophecy in the middle of a test. Can you imagine how horrible that would be? There are a few benefits to becoming the oracle, though. Annabeth has been a lot nicer to me, for one thing. I guess before she must've thought of me as her competition for Percy, but let's face it. I had as much of a chance with Percy as Poseidon does with Athena (that is, unless he has a chance).

"Rachel, can you name this character?" The teacher, Mrs. Kouris, or something like that anyway, asked. I looked up at the blackboard, written in bright yellow chalk was an omega.

"Omega," I answered confidently. And that would be the other benefit of being the oracle, everything that al of the past oracles knew, I know.

"Very good Rachel!" Mrs. Kouris exclaimed loudly. I didn't understand why she was making such a big deal out of the fact that I could name an omega correctly; this wasn't a beginner Greek class, Chiron made sure that I could continue my "Important" studies before I was allowed to transfer here. Unless…what if when Angie was switching Dana's classes to make sure she switched me into beginner Greek?

"Now, who can name the first letter of the Greek alphabet?" Mrs. K asked in an annoyingly sweet voice. Yep, definitely beginner Greek. Well, at least I won't have to worry about lots of homework in this class. The rest of the class went by easily. Mrs. K had assigned us seats, and since Rachel and Dana are nowhere near each other in the alphabet we couldn't pass notes, but it was fine. Mrs. K's Greek class wasn't the kind of class you passed notes in. By the end of class everyone had realized that this class would be an easy A, the only homework for the first night was to come up with a "Greek name" which we were going to use during class for the rest of the year. As the bell (classical music at an impossibly loud volume) I thought of what my Greek name should be, before (with a laugh) settling on Delphi.

English was as boring as I'd suspected it to be. The teacher, a man this time, looked to be at least sixty. He was balding, a bit pudgy, and had thick, horn-rimmed glasses. He wore a dark blue plaid button down that looked to be very very old and quite a bit too small. I tried my best to not look up once during the period. He started out with a review test, who gives tests on the first day of school! The test was about grammar and sentence structure, and I can proudly say that I'm sure I aced it; one of the former oracles was an English teacher after all.

The classical music started playing soon after I finished my test. Mr. whatever-his-name-was collected our papers and we were free to leave. I ambled across the campus until I came back to the Robert's dorm. 

The rest of the day passed with little excitement. As the last bell of the day rang, and I made my way back to my dorm room I decided to give Annabeth a status update. Searching through my backpack to find my wallet and emergency drachmas I almost didn't notice who I was in the elevator with. Cora was typing into what appeared to be a cell phone.

"Oracle," she said suddenly, pushing the 'stop' button on the elevator and leaning over me, crowding back into the corner of the elevator. "Where are your protectors now? Not so big are we without the daughter of Demeter now are we?"

"What daughter of Demeter?" I asked, but she just tilted her head to the side and continued speaking as if i hadn't asked a question.

"I'm here to warn you. That fight last summer? That was nothing compared to what my mistress has planned for you…"

"Your mistress?"

"You have your patron spirits, I have mine," she started to giggle. "She sent me to warn you. We will be attacking soon and she thinks you could be," she paused, as if searching for the right word. "Useful. We always need more with you talents and Phineas is getting... Let's just say, My Mistress wants him to be disposable and he isn't until we have your loyalty. Leave this school, oracle. leave the school if you want to survive. Warn your friends at your petty camp if you want to. It's not like there's anything that can protect you."

"But why are you helping me?" I asked desperately.

"Toodles!" With that she gave one last high pitched squeak and she was gone.


	6. Chapter 6

I ran the rest of the way back from the elevator, not even stopping by the vending machine for a sprite. I was definitely IMing Annabeth and Percy about this. Before I'd come, Percy made me promise to give him status updates every Wednesday as soon as classes were over (something about "Wednesday being the most boring day of the week"), and talking to him and Annabeth was never a bad thing. Say whatever you want about the unofficial king and queen of camp half blood, they were god strategists and twice as good when they worked together. I reached our room and knocked (though according to Zoey a more accurate description would be "pounded like I was running from an ax murderer in a bad horror movie and only had twenty seconds until he caught and killed me") on the door. Janine opened the door with a weird look, she probably agreed with Zoey about how I was knocking.

"Did you forget your key?"

"What?" I took that moment to look down at my hand and notice I was holding my wallet, and inside, my key. "Oh, uhm. No. It's right here." I held it up guiltily.

"Then what was the noise for?" Zoey asked from the other room. I walked in and gestured for Angie to follow me into her and Zoey's bedroom. I told them Cora warning, and they agreed that it was time to call in the big guns: Percy and Annabeth. Angie went into the bathroom and Iris messaged them, and the two of us followed her after we tried, and failed, to lock the door to the bedroom. 

"So what's the problem?" Percy asked as Zoey and i walked in. Angie was perched on the edge of the tub, and she scooted over to give us a place to sit. It appeared that the two of them were sitting on Percy's bed, her shirt was mis-buttoned and her tights were pooled on the floor, his hair was mussed and he had a suspiciously-placed pillow in his lap. I explained what had happened with Cora in the elevator, and how we thought that Dana might a demigod. 

"I can't believe she hasn't been claimed!" Percy said angrily once i'd finished talking. "Stupid Gods and their broken promises," he grumbled, causing Annabeth to elbow him in the stomach and mouth, what looked to be, "Stay on Task." Figures that that would be what Percy cared most about. 

"What Seaweed Brain over here means is that it's odd that she never made it to camp. I wonder where she went to school, I'll have to take that up with her Satyr. But I think the most pressing issue is what Cora said to you. We won the war, our enemies are dead, aren't they? Who could her mistress be? They obviously want you for your foresight, your gift of prophecy, but i can't think of a strategic advantage to having you warn us. Sure it would cause panic, but it would also give us time to prepare." Annabeth frowned and Percy started twirling a blonde curl around his finger. "I'm going to tell Chiron, we can call a meeting of the Cabin heads to see what we can do." Zoey stood up and waved her hand through the picture, and the three of us walked back into the bedroom.

********

Angie puzzled long and hard over the meaning of Cora's words, even after we ended the Iris Message. She was convinced that there were dark, double meanings hidden beneath her warning. I agreed with Annabeth, they seemed like a threat. Plain and simple, but of course I wasn't the daughter of the goddess of wisdom, so she probably was better at this sort of thing than I. The Athena cabin probably did word problems harder than this for fun in their spare time at camp. In fact I know they did. One time I was talking to Ella, one of the older Athena girls, and she just kept mumbling about how long it would take a taxi driver to get from Rome to Russia taking only country roads while traveling at 48mph. Granted, that was a whole other type of word problem.

"I get that you seem valuable, being the oracle and all," Angie reasoned. "But what I don't understand was her telling you to blab her warning all around camp. If they were going to attack, wouldn't they want it to be a secret? Wouldn't that guarantee a higher success rate?"

"Not if they were so sure they would win that they just wanted to intimidate you," somebody called from the doorway. In an almost comical way, Zoey, Angie, and my head turned to look at the door only to find Janine staring at us.

"Judging by your reactions you all thought I was asleep." At that Angie and I turned to glare at Zoey.

"I believe that was your job, Zoey," Angie said calmly. Here's the thing about Angie: she's one of those people that never screamed. When she was calm, you knew you were in the most trouble. I'd only seen her lose it once; when one of the Hermes kids, Ben or Isaiah, I cant remember which, spilled raspberry koolaid all over a blueprint of Annabeth's that she'd been fixing the angle of the roof all summer. Luckily Annabeth had a second copy, but if she hadn't, I don't even want to imagine what Angie would have done.

"You trying keeping somebody asleep when you're focusing on warnings from demon socialites!" Zoey yelled.

"Demon socialites?" Janine and I asked at the same time. 

"Oh, be quiet Rachel."

"Look, Janine." Angie began. "You really should go…"

"I'm not leaving until you tell me what's going on. I might be able to help."

"No offense Janine, but I can't imagine a situation in which you'd be helpful right now."

"Gods, Angie, I was just trying to be helpful." She turned back towards the door and made to leave the room.

"Wait!" I shouted as she was about to leave. "You said Gods, not God."

"Your point?"

"Well most people say God, you know, singular. But you didn't. I just want to know why." 

"I don't know, it's just something I say. You don't have to give me the fifth."

"You're not leaving without a better explanation," Angie said stonily. Janine sighed loudly.

"Okay, you might find this strange, but the Greek Gods are still alive." The three of us turned and looked at each other. What did Janine know? "When my mom was sixteen she had a daughter with, don't laugh because I promise I'm telling the truth here, Hephaestus." I looked at my friends and they nodded: it was time to tell Janine the truth.

"Look Janine…"

"Don't laugh! Seriously, I promise this is all true!"

"Janine, we believe you. Angie is the daughter of Athena and Zoey of Hypnos. I'm the Oracle of Delphi. Trust me, nobody thinks you're lying."


	7. Chapter 7

"So Janine, you're a child of Hephaestus? How come I've never seen you around camp?" Angie asked. Come to think of it, I'd never seen her around camp either. According to Percy, the last oracle was a mummy that lived in the attic. My worst fear was everybody starting to avoid me, so i made it a point to get to know every demigod. 

"Because I don't go to camp, and I'm not a child of Hephaestus." Angie turned and glared at us frantically as if to say "Guys, we blew it! Chiron's going to kill us!".

"But you just said-"

"I know what I said Rachel, and I never said that I was the daughter of Hephaestus. My older sister was."

"Was?" Zoey asked cautiously.

"Yeah, was. She died. Last summer actually. Nobody could ever tell me why. Just that she died fighting some titan or whatever." I looked at Angie and Zoey, who gave me a small nod. Her sister died, Janine definitely deserved to know what had actually happened in Manhattan last summer.

"Your sister died in the Titan war. This was the greatest threat that humanity has faced in the modern era. Over fifty demigods died. But we won. I'm not going to tell you that she died for the greater good, because those are empty words. But I will tell you that we live in a better world because of everyone that fought the Titans. What was her name?"

"Morgan, Morgan Colt."

"Of course!" Zoey yelled, standing up. "You look just like her! I knew Morgan-we always took archery together. She was even worse at it than I was, and trust me. That's an accomplishment. I don't know how I didn't see it before! You have the same eyes, and hair actually, though she kept hers much shorter."

"You seem like you actually knew her."

"Not as well as I could have, I've only been at camp for two years. But wait here a second." Zoey ran off into our room. 

"She probably knew her better than I did," Janine said bitterly. "Morgan lived at camp year round, she only came home for Christmas and my mom's birthday. Even after my mom married and had me, whenever Morgan came over it was like the sun and moon rose and set out of her ass. And she's, well, she was my sister. Now she's dead. The worst part is here I am all bitter about it when she actually did something with her life and I'm a little jealous that our mom loved her more. And Gods, I hate myself for that. But I can't stop."

"Janine I-" I began, but Angie cut me off."

"There's this girl at Camp, Annabeth. She's the counselor of the Athena cabin and my half sister. Athena actually talks to her. She got tasked with rebuilding Olympus after it got destroyed. Do you know how much it hurts to have your mom brag about your sister to other Gods and barely remember your name?" I looked at Angie worriedly, I'd never heard her say anything of the sort before. "it's not like you can fault Annabeth for it, she's amazing and one of the first people at camp that was nice to me, even before I got claimed."

"You just wish you got some credit every now and then," Janine finished for her.

"Yeah, exactly."

"I found it!" Zoey yelled from the other room. She ran back in carrying a small, bound book. "This is my camp photo album. I knew I brought it, I just couldn't find it."

"That's because you're the world's messiest person…" Angie muttered under her breath.

"Here! I found her." Zoey presented the book to Janine.

"That's, that's Morgan," Janine said, tearing up a little. "Can I have this?" She asked, pointing to a picture of Morgan. She was in the forges; don't ask me how anyone got a picture down there that wasn't completely filled with smoke. Morgan wasn't looking at the camera, she was building what appeared to be a…actually, I have no idea what she was building, but she was quite intent on it and it was made out of a very shiny metal. 

"You want it, it's yours," Zoey replied, taking the photo out of the album. 

"But Janine," Angie said. "What about what you just said?"

"What if this was Annabeth. Would you want it? I might not've liked her very much, but she's my big sister and I loved-love her." After that we all sat in silence, Zoey going through her photo book, Janine staring at the picture and Zoey and me simply thinking. I'd never had a sibling, and I was only jealous of those that did at times like these. Some people think being an only child is awesome, but it's actually really lonely. That was another reason why life at camp was so exciting: everyone felt like a big family. 

After about three minutes of silence, Angie clapped her hands.

"We need to get back to what were doing before Janine came in. If Cora tries anything we need to be prepared."

"Cora?"

"Look, Janine we don't have time to give you the whole story," Zoey said. "So let's just say that Cora is actually an Empousa, who we think wants to hurt Dana. Also, she has a mistress that wants to hurt people and isn't afraid for us to know that."

"That's pretty much the whole story, Zoey," Angie commented, smirking.

"Oh go away," Zoey said. Angie just smiled wider.

"Anyway, as Zoey put it, we need to get Dana to camp without Cora noticing that we have her."

"Wait, has Dana been claimed?" I asked.

"Claimed?"

"Don'r worry about it Janine, it's a camp thing," Angie said. "She probably hasn't, why would she have? She's been living in the mortal world all this time."

"But didn't Percy make the Gods swear to claim all their children by 13?"

"Maybe it was never safe," Zoey said, ominously.

Suddenly, we heard a scream coming from down the hall. Zoey took off her necklace and a glowing bronze sword took its place and Angie grabbed the knives that were hidden in her boots, and I grabbed the sword that Percy gave me last year that I'd underneath my bed, thankful that I'd forced him to teach me how to fight.

"Sorry, Janine, but we need to go."


	8. Chapter 8

The three of us raced down the hall towards the source of the screaming. Angie first, followed by Zoey and then myself. Angie finally stopped when she reached the second-to-last door in the hallway. She took a deep breath, then turned to look back at us. When we nodded, Angie kicked the door in. The three of us piled into the room in our battle stances, holding our weapons at the ready.

"What the hell are you guys doing here?" Gail shrieked, standing up as she saw us. Great, the screaming had to be coming from her room.

"And with…hairbrushes?" Lexi added, managing to sound both confused and judgmental.

"I," Zoey started, swallowing nervously.

"You…" Gail prompted after a few seconds of Zoey's floundering for an explanation.

"We thought we heard screaming?" She finished lamely.

"And you planned to, what, brush them to death?" Cora scoffed, entering the room as Dana followed behind. "Hello Oracle," she continued, settling down next to Lexi on the couch. "See you didn't listen to my advice. Such a pity, we thought you were smarter than that." Cora crossed her metal leg over her donkey leg and began to inspect her nails. Angie's eyes opened wide as she looked at Lexi, Gail, and Dana, waiting for one of them to realized that what Cora said wasn't their clichéd High School Mean Girl threat. However, none of them appeared to register anything out of the ordinary.

"So if nothing's going on, what was the screaming?" I asked, breaking the silence that had enveloped the room.

Lexi giggled. "We were playing truth or dare. Gail dared Dana to.."

"Shh!" Gail cut her off, hitting her on the arm. "We can't tell them all of our secrets Lexi! Don't be an idiot."

Finally, Dana piped in. "There was really nothing going on. Honestly, just some friendly fun." Cora nodded emphatically.

"Allright. We'll just go then, I guess," Zoey said quietly.

"That's probably a good idea."

"Oh shut up Gail," Angie mumbled as we walked out.

"So…That was awful," Zoey said once we were back in our room, collapsing on the couch.

"Oh, don't be so dramatic Zoey," Angie said bitterly. "It wasn't actually that bad." She chuckled. "We're all still alive, so it could be worse."

"What, you expected otherwise?" A voice called from the doorway. "I knew something was up when you marched in with swords." Dana pushed the door in and sat cross-legged on the floor in front of where we were seated on the couch. "They said that you guys had hairbrushes? But they were swords? And sometimes Cora looks like… And she called you Oracle? And, and, oh just please tell me I'm not losing my mind," Dana sighed and put her head in her hands. "I tried to talk to Gail but she laughed me off. You guys probably think I'm crazy. I just…you were holding swords."

"Zoey, go put Janine to sleep."

"But Angie…"

"Just do it. I don't care how much she already knows, this is none of her business. Dana, if you can see through the mist…"

"What's…" Dana began, but Angie stood up and held up her hand to stop her.

"We'll explain later. Right now, we need to get you packed up and out of here."

"What? I'm not going anywhere until you explain what's going on." Dana stood up and walked over to where Angie was standing. "I don't even know you. Why would I listen to you?"

"You came to us for help Dana, and that's what we're trying to give you."

"I came to you because you marched into a dorm room with swords, and then I overheard you talk about how lucky you were to be alive. That doesn't make you the poster children for trustworthiness." 

I looked at Angie and she nodded.

"You might want to sit down for this."


	9. Chapter 9

"You might want to sit down for this," I said. No matter how many times I have had to give this speech, destroying someone's life never seemed to get any easier. Dana looked back at me quizzically and gestured to her crossed legs.

"I'm already sitting down." She paused. "I just want to know what's going on," finishing her sentence in a whine. Then, as if to prove how ridiculous it was that I told her to take a seat, Dana stood up and started pacing around the room. "Well?" She prompted when it appeared that none of us were going to start speaking.

"I'm waiting for you to sit back down," I responded. Dana rolled her eyes and perched on the edge of the coffee table, elbows on her knees so she was slightly hunched over, eyes at the perfect height to stare us down. Angie looked like she wanted to speak, so I waved my hand as if to say "go ahead."

"Dana," Angie began. "What do you know about the Greek Gods?" Suddenly, Dana bent over and started laughing. Cackling, really. Angie gave me a weird look, and put her hand near her boots defensively, ready to grab her knives.

"You've been as charming as always, Demigods," Dana said, rising up until she was sitting straight. Dana gracefully stood and waved her hand twice. First her green eyes began to fade into a soft, caramel brown. Her hair began to grow down, down getting lighter as it grew until it reached her waist where it hung in limp curls. Her skin got darker until she was deeply tan, and, in what appeared to be a cyclone of fabric, her jeans and green sweater turned into an ancient Greek style chemise and a golden circlet appeared on her head. I couldn't be sure, but she seemed to have a dark aura surrounding her now that she had changed form. "But now I really must be going."

"Dana?" I asked cautiously.

"Not quite," she replied in a teasing tone, slowly shaking her head. "Guess again. Why don't you think a little bit…bigger."

"You're not Lady Demeter, are you?" Angie asked, sending Not-Dana into another fit of giggles. "It's all about the Gods with you mortals," she eventually said, narrowing her eyes. "And soon, they won't even matter!" Not-Dana moved to walk out of the door when I suddenly realized that I knew who she was.

"You're Medea, aren't you?" I called after her retreating form. She turned around and smiled a wide, predatory smile.

"Well done, Oracle. But how did you know?"

"Yeah, Rachel." Angie asked, finally pulling her hands away from her still-hidden knives, knowing that they would be worthless against Medea's magic. "How did you know?"

"Have you ever been inside of the Oracle cave? No, I suppose you wouldn't have been allowed past python… He almost ate Nico last time he tried to come inside. I should really do something about him. It gets lonely in the cave. Sorry. Getting off topic. The inside of the cave is painted with stories. I recognized you from Jason's."

At the mention of the name "Jason" Medea's face soured. I wasn't sure, but I could have sworn that I heard her mumble: "Lousy men. You help them out once and you end up killing your kids."

"Ok. Just for clarification's sake, let's pretend that I'm not that bright and that I don't understand what's going on," Zoey said slowly.

"Suuure," Angie replied, drawing out the word. "Let's pretend."

"Just because I'm not you doesn't mean I'm not smart, Angie. So you're Medea?"

"Yes, Demigod."

"Does Dana even exist?"

"Why would we go through the trouble of creating a Demigod? Enough of you half-breeds already exist."

"Did we meet the real Dana? Or has it been you the whole time?"

"I only took over last night. Any interaction with bastard child before that would have been with the actual girl."

"So where is she now?" Zoey questioned at the same time as I asked: "What have you done with her?"

"She's sleeping." Medea replied. "But now I really must be off."

"You have to give us more than that!" Angie demanded. "She's sleeping? Sleeping where?" But it was no use, Medea had already disappeared.

"Well what the hell are we supposed to do now?"


	10. Chapter 10

After Medea left, the room was filled with a stunned silence. The three of us sat, unable to move, just staring at where Medea had been until Zoey broke the silence with a snore.

"Zoey!" Angie shouted, elbowing Zoey hard in the stomach and wrinkling her nose in distaste. "We need to focus! Didn't you hear Medea? There is a demigod somewhere in the world that probably doesn't know that she's a demigod. We need to figure out how to save her!"

"Gods Angie," Zoey said, sleepily rubbing where Angie had elbowed her. "Didn't you listen to Medea? She said Dana was sleeping. I'm a child off Hypnos, in case you'd forgotten-"

"How could we with the way you snore all the freaking time?" Angie asked sarcastically.

"-And sleep is my domain. While you were panicking, yes, Angie, that was definitely panic, I was reaching out to my siblings and asking if any of them had heard anything from a scared, sleeping child of Demeter." The fact that someone had thought of something smart to do shocked Angie perhaps even more than the realization that Dana was actually a reanimated witch from 300 B.C.E.

"Oh. That was. Actually. Well. That was really quick thinking of you," Angie eventually managed to say.

"Did anyone hear anything from her?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. One of my siblings, Clovis, thought that he might have."

"Then that's great. What did he say? Was it useful?. Does he know where we can find her? How we're supposed to find her? Could he tell if she's injured? I know Medea said she was unharmed. Call me crazy, but I don't trust her."

"Angie woke me up before I could fully get through to him."

"Why don't you just fall asleep again?"

"Dreams don't work like that, Rachel. They're fluid. It's not like a television, I can't just switch back to a channel I accidentally turned off. His dream-self has probably already moved on. We're better of going to camp and asking him."

"Why couldn't we just send him an iris message?"

"You think he'd wake up for that? Please. Butch fit twenty pencils inside of his nose before he woke up. And besides, Iris might not be too happy with my father right now, so I doubt she'd accept my offering or connect anyone to a child of Hypnos."

"How could Hypnos offend anybody?" Angie asked. "I thought he spent too much time sleeping to do any serious damage. He didn't even help fight the titans!" Zoey looked out of the window, as if she expected thunder or lightning to appear. With most gods, if you insult them, even accidentally, it hardly ever went without a reaction, but it appeared that Lord Hypnos was not one of them.

"He's not going to do anything, Zoey," Angie continued. "He's probably sleeping the day away like he does everyday."

"Dreams are more powerful than you give them credit for. You kids of Athena, all you care about is reason. Rationality. What's the best, the smartest thing to at any given moment. There is nothing rational about dreaming. You're completely powerless when you surrender yourself to my father's realm. Dreams are desires, sometimes wishes you didn't know that you had. You're right; he did not fight against the titans last summer. But that does not mean that he didn't help. When Morpheus put the city to sleep, he ensured that the inhabitants slept sweetly. That if they died, their last thoughts would be gentle. Every time any demigod fell asleep in the days leading up to the final battle, their dreams were either rousing calls for their bravery in the upcoming fight, or, if they were among Luke Castellan's traitors, in their dreams he showed them what they always wanted: their parent's respect, something that they would never see if they succeeded in dethroning the gods. You ask how my father could have offended Iris. My father knows everything that has ever been wanted. Lusted after. In a dream, he simply reminded her of that, as I expect him to do to you after the disrespect you've shown him."

"Um, sorry Lord Hypnos?" Angie said meekly, recoiling from the stony look on Zoey's face. Zoey's face softened, and she stood up.

"I just don't like it when people disrespect my dad," she said with a shrug. "So we should probably pack for our trip, yeah? I can't wait to go back to camp!"

"We can't just leave," I reminded Zoey. This is a school. What will our teachers do if we don't show up for class? They'll call my parents, that's what they'll do. And then you two will get in trouble with Chiron and I'll never be able to come back to camp."

"Since when do you care what your parents think, or what they'll threaten to do?"

"Since I swore on the River Styx to Chiron that I wouldn't do anything that would put the oracle's spirit in danger. What use is holding the spirit of the oracle if I'm never allowed back to camp to give a prophecy?"

"Okay, so if we can't go to camp, what do you want us to do?" Zoey asked. "We'll need to leave here anyway if we want to find Dana."

"Let's start by sending an Iris message to Annabeth and Percy or Chiron and asking them to wake Clovis. Let me go grab a drachma out of my wallet." Angie ran back into her room, only to return seconds later.

"They're gone. They're all gone. I don't understand, I always carry emergency drachmas. Somebody must have gotten into my bag and stolen them."

"Stolen them? Who would have even known to look for them?"

"It had to have been Cora."

"Cora? We have the gods' protection. She couldn't have come in unless we invited her."

"Oh gods. You know who we did invite in? Medea. I bet she took them. That doesn't even sound like difficult magic."

"So now what?" I asked Angie. "We can't call camp and we can't just pick up and leave. Do you have a plan?"

"Maybe."

"Okay well part of a plan is better than no plan at all. What have you got?"

"Nice math Zoey. Before we left, Chiron told me that, should we have any trouble, we could always talk to the Greek teacher. Apparently she's a child Aphrodite."


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long delay! It was finals and then it was the holidays.... Anyway, I'm back now.

"Mrs. Kouris is a child of Aphrodite?" I asked, shocked. It's always amazing when you find a demigod that survived beyond their teenage years. The fact that they're rarer than two dollars bills always made me worried for my friends. Who would I lose first? Zoey? Angie? Percy? Nico? The camp had already lost Charles and Silena, neither of whom I actually knew, so I was still waiting for the first of my friends to die. 

"That would explain why I felt like you couldn't pass notes in her class."

"How on earth does it do that, Rachel?" Zoey asked, confused. 

"She was probably using charmspeak."

"Oh. That actually does make a lot of sense. So should we go see her?" 

"Can we do that? Go visit a teacher after hours?"

"Who cares what we're supposed to do, Zoey," Angie said, getting up and walking towards the door. "This could be a matter of life and death."

"Dramatic much?" Zoey asked, raising an eyebrow as she too stood up and turned off the light.

"What would you call this? Dana could be dying!" Angie reminded us, locking the door as we stepped out into the hallway. I pressed the bottom floor on the elevator, and Zoey raised her hands, her silent surrender to Angie.

"I never said that you were wrong, just dramatic."

"Shut up, both of you!" I shouted once we were all in the elevator. "We're out past curfew and your squabbling is going to get us caught, and the longer it takes us to get to Ms. Kouris means that it will take longer to reach Camp Half-Blood. And the longer that it takes us to get to Camp means the longer Dana has to suffer. So shut it."

"Sorry, Rachel." They replied in unison.

The three of us left Roberts hall and wandered towards the Forbidden part of campus: Fordham Hall-the teacher's wing. Either the gods were on our side, which, honestly, they probably weren't, or, for a snotty private school, the Clarion Ladies Academy had terrible security. The latter option was much more likely.

"Shit. Look, Rachel, Zoey," Angie said as we reached the entrance to Fordham hall.

"What is it Angie?"

"The door. You need an employee ID card to get in."

"What should we do now?" Zoey asked desperately.

"You should come with me," said a voice from inside the door. All three of us jumped back, shocked that we'd been caught. The door opened out, only to reveal Mrs. Kouris glaring at us from inside.

"Why don't you girls come inside so you can persuade me to not call Dean Rivers," Mrs. Kouris replied, pushing the door open further then turning around and walking back into the shadows behind the Fordham doorway. I turned back towards Angie and Zoey and shrugged.

"We wanted to talk to her," I reminded them, warily stepping into the building.

The faculty apartments were similar to the student apartments, with the exception of the second bedroom leading off of the common room being replaced by a kitchenette. Mrs. Kouris' common room was practically a shrine to Aphrodite. A reproduction of Boticelli's The Birth of Venus hung where most rooms had a television, and there were at least 20 other depictions of Aphrodites in other ethnicities and forms-including one of her as a dog and another as a Cyclops-were scattered throughout the room. The walls were covered in pictures of couples, most likely former students and their romantic partners.

"You girls take a seat and I'll go make some tea," Mrs. Kouris announced after we had looked around. She returned a few minutes later with four steaming china heart shaped mugs full of tea.

"Milk and sugar?" She asked. Both Angie and I nodded, but Zoey only took milk in her tea. Since it was a well known fact that sugar can cause nightmares, most children of Hypnos attempted to eat as little sugar as possible.

"Mrs. Kouris," Angie began.

"Call me Sarah, cousin. We're not that far apart in age." Mrs. Ko-Sarah interrupted.

"You know we're…" Zoey stammered, shocked that she'd called Angie cousin.

"Demigods? Yes, of course. Chiron told me. Why do you think you were allowed to come?"

"If you knew who we were, why did you threaten to take us to Dean Rivers?" I asked, perturbed.

"Have you not noticed how many other people reside in this building? You girls were lucky that my room is directly over the entrance. But I suspect this visit isn't a social call. What's wrong?" Angie told Sarah about Dana and Cora, about Medea and about our struggle to figure out how to fix the situation.

"Well you were right to come to me," Sarah decided once Angie had finished telling her our sad story. "First, I always carry drachmas." As if to prove her words, she reached into one of the folds on her long, blue dress and pulled out a handful. "Take these and contact Camp Half-Blood. Tell Chiron that I'm bringing you home."


	12. Chapter 12

After we'd left Sarah's room, we packed up one backpack's worth of clothing, water bottles, and granola bars each. I also packed one of my sketchbooks, and Angie grabbed the Tupperware's worth of Ambrosia and the thermos of nectar that she'd brought on the off chance that either she or Zoey needed it. Janine gave me a weird look when she saw me packing a bag, but I lied and told her that my dad was pulling us out of school for a week to celebrate the opening of a new Dare power plant in Rio de Janeiro. I went to sleep that night anxious, but cautiously optimistic about the next day. I couldn't wait to get back to camp! Neither Annabeth nor Percy went full time-Percy wanted to but Annabeth was adamant that school was actually important-but they were there almost every weekend and would certainly come in if we asked them to, considering how close Sally and Paul's apartment was to camp. Nico had pretty much moved in to the Hades cabin, where mooned over Percy from afar. Clarisse and Chris would both be there, along with Grover and Juniper, both of whom were getting pretty serious. Hopefully Chiron had managed to get Apollo to control python. Thinking about Chiron reminded me of the matter at hand. Where was Dana? How were we supposed to find her?

The next day I woke up as tired and groggy as I would have been had I not slept at all; only Angie's voice kept me from falling back into a restless sleep.

"Mrs. Ko-" she stopped and rolled her eyes. "Sarah sent us an email. She told Dean Rivers that she wants to take us on an enrichment trip. Zoey and I are up and I got us instant coffee from the caf, so we can leave whenever you're ready. "

"You managed to wake Zoey up before me?" I responded, shocked.

"I know. it's amazing. I think I might actually be rubbing off on her!" Angie said gleefully, her eyes lighting up. "Anyway, we'll be in the common room. Take a quick shower, that should help wake you up."

I got ready quickly and soon we were on the road. The drive wasn't actually too long, so it was only around three hours until we were turning onto that familiar stretch of road before Thalia's pine and the grand archway that welcomed us to camp.

"Are you going to come with us?" I asked Sarah as we got out of her car.

"You know, I think I will. It's been a while since I've been back. Gods-it must be almost ten years since I've seen the ol'cabin."

"Oh," Angie said once she realized how long Sarah had been away. "You probably think there's still only twelve cabins."

"There are more than twelve?"

"After the battle of Manhattan last year, a demigod named Percy-" Angie stopped short. "Actually, I think that's him over there." She pointed towards the Big House, where what appeared to be a black haired boy and a blonde girl were sparring. "Let's go get Percy to tell you what he did! He's so modest-it's so much fun to embarrass him!"

We walked over to where Percy and Annabeth were standing, though by the time we reached them they had devolved from sparring to arguing.

"There is no way that Bruce Banner would beat Thor in a fight," Percy said passionately. "Thor has too many powers. Sure, Hulk is big, but Thor would call down lightning and fry him alive!"

"Seaweed Brain, next time I tell you what my idiot ten-year-old brothers are arguing about, could you maybe not start shouting about how one of them is clearly wrong? I'd really love it if you pretended, even if just for a moment, that boys do, in fact, continue aging after age ten."

"If you think defending Thor's honor is childish, just call me kiddo."

"I can't call you kiddo. You're my boyfriend, that's too weird." Annabeth shuddered at the thought. "And besides," she added, smirking up at Percy. "I already call you Seaweed Brain, and I'm not sure you'd be able to handle a second nickname. It might push out something important like the Pythagorean formula or maybe you'd forget your real name. You never know how much you can actually keep in there." She knocked on his head for emphasis and opened her eyes wide, feigning innocence.

"That is a good point," Percy said, nodding sarcastically. "It would be awful if I forgot anything important."

"Mind if we cut in?" I asked after watching them argue for a bit. Gods, the two of them were better than television.

"Rachel! Angie! Zo! Hey guys!" Percy shouted giving each of us a hug, happy to turn the conversation away from his possibly smaller than average mental capabilities. "Who's the lady?" He whispered to Zoey.

"Percy, Annabeth, this is Sarah Kouris, Daughter of Aphrodite. We were just telling her that it's thanks to you that there are so many more cabins. Care to explain?"

"Oh," Percy stammered, blushing and pawing at the back of his neck. "It was nothing really. After I defeated Luke-" He looked at Annabeth and winced. "It was Kronos really," he amended only for Sarah to respond, shocked.

"You defeated Kronos?"

"It wasn't just me. Every demigod did their part, even Luke in the end. But we should probably talk about Dana, no?" He asked quickly, bringing us back to the task at hand. "Let's go into the meeting room." Percy grabbed Annabeth's hand and lead the three of us into the Big House, Sarah instead choosing to visit the Aphrodite cabin.

"I brought Clovis over here before you guys arrived," Annabeth said. "You told Chiron last night that he'd heard from Dana, so I figured that it was probably easiest for all six of us to talk." Annabeth kicked Clovis awake from where he was sitting in one of the chairs that surrounded the round table. Zoey immediately walked over to him and gave him a hug.

"You would not believe how bad a crick in your neck you get from sleeping in that chair," Clovis said sleepily, stretching his arms in a yawn. "I've dreamed of Dana almost every night since you told me to watch over her, Zoey, and I know that I am not alone in doing that among our siblings. You must have felt her presence, such a heavy sleep."

"What does he mean by that?" Annabeth asked Zoey, as Clovis had already started to closed his eyes.

"The Dreamscape is sort of like underwater-" Percy's ears perked up at that. "The longer someone sleeps, the heavier their sleep becomes and the darker they fall. The lower someone gets to the 'ground' of sorts, the easier it becomes for us to reach out to them as their consciousness has a harder time pushing us away."

"Then that's great," Angie said. "What happens when you reach out to Dana?"

"It's not that simple. She's so deep that her subconscious self has started to fade. Even when we reach out to her, there's little to grasp onto."

"What does that mean?" I asked, worried that I knew what she was implying.

"It means that she's dying, wherever she is."


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter seriously references my other story in the series: Surprise! as i have the two of them set at the same time. You do not have to have read Surprise! to understand but I will give you a big cookie if you went and checked it out (::)

"She's dying and there's no way for you to find her?" Annabeth asked, shocked. "But I thought you had some fancy way of reading her dreams to search for clues to her surroundings?"

"You're right," Clovis said, stretching out and yawning. "We did get something. Zoey wasn't sure if we should mention it, though, since it really isn't much to go on."

"Well anything is better than nothing," I said at the same time Percy said "Hit me."

"She's cold. Freezing, really. Most of her dreams have been concentrated on her losing feeling in her fingers and toes. In her dreams, Dana's concocted this giant snowman that slowly bites off one digit after the other-it's actually almost cute if you can ignore the teeth-to explain what her frostbite feels like."

"She's somewhere cold," Annabeth repeated slowly, as she pulled out a map of the world. You could almost see the gears turning behind her eyes. "It's almost December, so we're looking for somewhere in the Northern Hemisphere."

"She could also be in the water or in somewhere like the tip of South America or Antarctica," Angie added, but Annabeth shook her head.

"South America's unlikely. We have to assume that we're dealing with a problem of Greek origin-we know that Medea and some Empousi are working for her captor, and I don't think that they would risk it. Latin America has their own Gods. But you're right-I forgot to consider Antarctica." Annabeth reached back under the table, grabbed a box rainbow push pins and pinned the map up on the wall, sticking a pin into the capitol of each country that Dana could be in.

"If we're getting rid of places with other Gods, you can probably get rid of Scandinavia," Angie said after Annabeth stepped back the map. "And really anywhere in Europe outside of Italy and Greece. Those two countries only get snow in very specific regions. And I'm not very confident in my knowledge of Mediterranean weather patterns, but it seems to early for them to have any serious snowfall."

"And it just seems like such a hassle," I added.

"What do you mean, Rachel?" Annabeth asked.

"If you kidnap someone in Conneticuit, what's the point of dragging them halfway across the world? They're just as hidden in Wyoming or one of the Dakotas or, i don't know, Saskatchewan as they are in Antarctica. I mean, why would anybody voluntarily travel to Wyoming?"

"I hear it's pretty there," Zoey answered lamely. 

"Hey, Annabeth," Percy asked after a moment of silence. "Didn't Travis and Katie ask you about a snow goddess?"

"Yeah." Annabeth responded, confused as to why Percy was bringing it up. "I think they were talking about Khione."

"What happened to Katie and Travis?" Angie asked, hating that she was left out.

"The two of them were trapped in a restaurant in Colorado by some sort of magical evil ice. They got out, and now they're on their way here with Connor, a potential demigod and three mortals. They should get here tomorrow night."

"But that makes perfect sense!" Percy shouted standing up to join Annabeth by the map and startling Zoey who was sitting on his other side. "I'll bet Khione is somehow related to Dana becoming an icicle."

"That would be great if we knew where Khione lived," Annabeth reminded Percy.

"Don't we?" I asked. "Why wouldn't Mr. D know? Or if he didn't know, couldn't you just ask your parents?"

Percy and Annabeth looked at each other guiltily.

"There's something we might have forgotten to mention," Annabeth said. "I-We didn't want to worry you while you guys were at school. It really wasn't something that you should have had to deal with."

"Annabeth, stop stalling."

"Sorry Angie." She took a deep breath. "We can't ask Mr. D because he's not here."

"What do you mean? Did his punishment end? It can't have been…how many years was he trapped here for?"

"His punishment isn't over. Or, I guess it is but not because he ran out the clock. Zeus recalled him to Olympus." Annabeth paused and looked at our shocked faces. "But that's not the worst part. We can't ask anyone on Olympus—the gods have gone silent."

"They can't do that!" Zoey responded angrily, and then softer she asked: "Can they?"

"They can and they have. I'm going to pester Chiron about Khione, If anyone knows where she is, he does. But Rachel, you're our only hope to save Dana."

"How do you mean, Annabeth?" I asked, confused. I wasn't even a demigod! I issued the quests, I didn't go on them!

"Rachel, you have to try to reach Apollo." Annabeth stated. "At this point, I fear that Dana's been frozen so long that any heat we put on her would be too stressful for her body to handle. Apollo's not only the God of heat, he's also the God of healing. With that combination, i feel like he could probably gauge the right amount of heat to apply. He could probably do some sort of godly magic and save her."

"You don't think any of his kids could do it?"

"I don't think we have any skilled-enough healers at camp right now. I think they'd almost certainly kill her."


	14. Chapter 14

I prayed to Apollo all night, but I never heard a response. Usually, Apollo responded quickly when I reached out to him. Apollo, in general, was a pretty bored God. Zeus had punished Dionysus by sticking him at camp-though I guess that punishment was now lifted as he'd been recalled to Olympus-but he'd punished Apollo by placing an irremovable chastity belt on him. I'm actually pretty sure that Apollo is going to spontaneously combust from all his pent up sexual energy before the punishment is over. Now that he finds no point in chasing after every Sally, Tom, or Taylor that's caught his eye, Apollo's mainly spends his time lounging around Olympus or trying to annoy his sister's hunters. If you think Demigods are hyperactive you should try hanging out with Apollo. A depressed Sun God can out complain my friend Lola's younger sister and trust me, that's impressive.

"Rachel! Rachel! You need to come quickly!" Angie screamed, frantically dodging and jumping around python as she ran into my cave.

"What is it Angie?"

"Percy's missing."

"What?"

"He's gone. His bed's still made so Annabeth doesn't think he even slept there last night. Apparently he's never made a bed a day in his life."

"So where is he?"

"We don't know! I started this whole conversation by saying he was missing, remember?"

"Oh, Gods, right. Come on then! Let's go find Annabeth and Grover."

Together we ran out of the cave. I ducked down to rub python's head as we ran past him. We found Annabeth on the porch of the Big House, sitting next to Grover and Thalia on the porch swing, with Nico pacing next to them, angrily twisting his ring with each step.

"Stupid Son of Poseidon always going and putting himself in danger," Thalia muttered, hugging Annabeth to her. Her words were angry but they lacked any heat behind them. She was obviously more worried about than pissed off at Percy. Grover was nervously eating tin cans by the dozen. Annabeth wasn't crying, her eyes were red-rimmed and scrubbed raw, and she had a tissue packet sticking out of the pocket of her sweatshirt, so she'd probably been crying earlier.

"Rachel!" Grover said, standing up as he saw me. "Did you see anything last night? Do you have any idea what's going on?"

I shook my head no. "Last night I was so focused on trying to reach Apollo that even if there had been something to see I don't think I would have picked up on it." At my words, Annabeth's eyes opened and her posture shifted, fast as if I'd flicked a switch she went from worried girlfriend to badass demigod mode.

"Did you have any luck reaching him? I don't think Dana has much time left."

I shook my head again. "Apollo has completely blocked himself off from me. I can feel the ghost of the warmth, the brightness where his presence should be, but it's this weird empty space in my outer consciousness."

"I'm going to pretend I know what you mean," Thalia said. "Care to fill me in on why you're looking for Apollo and who this 'Dana' is? Do you think she's related to Percy's disappearance?"

"I doubt it." Annabeth said. "Dana's this demigod that Rachel accidentally found at her school. she's been kidnapped by someone that's working with Medea. Right now we think it's Khione."

"I thought you said that Khione trapped Katie and the Stolls in a cheese restaurant?" Grover asked.

"I think it was a fondue place, actually," Annabeth clarified.

"But if she's already responsible for all of that, why couldn't she be responsible for this too?" Thalia asked.

"Katie said that she saw her talking to someone else, reporting back on her progress and Rachel said an empousa told her that her mistress has something horrible planned, so we don't think that Khione is actually in charge. Also, the borders of Camp Half-Blood are weather protected, so unless seaweed brain was boneheaded enough to leave camp willingly, I don't see how she could have taken him."

"Unless she has someone working for her on the inside," Nico said ominously.

"Who would want to hurt Percy? I think we should assume that it was someone from outside until we're proven wrong," I countered.

"Let's get back to Dana," Annabeth said. "If you can't reach Apollo, I think she might be doomed. We can try sending Will, but…"

"I didn't say that I was done trying to reach him."

"Well no offence, Rachel, but maybe try to hurry up a bit?"

"Listen, Annabeth. Do you think I'm not trying as hard as I can? In fact, tomorrow, why don't I just waltz up to Apollo and commandeer his sun chariot? Then he has to listen to me."

"That's actually not a terrible idea."

"You sound surprised, Annabeth."

"So shoot me," Annabeth said, raising her arms in a mock surrender. "Do you know where he starts his journey across the sky?

"Fiji."

"Then we need to get you there, asap."


	15. Chapter 15

We had Chiron call in a favor that one of the Anemoi owed him, and the next day I was woken around eleven o'clock by three fidgety wind spirits. The three of them were connected to a pale, white chariot the way that horses are tethered to buggies. They obviously hated being constrained, forced to stay on the ground the way that they were. Chiron entered behind them.

"Sunrise in Fiji is at around 7:10 today- 1:10 here if you account for the time difference. It should take you less than two hours to get there, if the spirits behave. Which they will," he added, staring down each spirit in turn. "Since we don't have any children of Zeus at camp right now besides Thalia, and we both know how much she hates heights, I figured I would ask another child of the sky to join you to ensure that you don't get forced out of the sky." He stepped further into the cave and revealed the smallish blonde, blue eyed figure behind him. "Meet Will Solace, head counselor for the Apollo cabin." Will gave me a curt nod and glanced warily at python. "Take a minute to grab some food, then the two of you should head out." Chiron added.

I followed Chiron out of my cave and then headed towards the big house. Breakfast was already finished and lunch wouldn't start being served until noon, so I figured that raiding the small snack area in rec room of the big house would be my best chance to find anything edible. I could, always, go visit the Demeter cabin and ask for some fruit, but they were weirdly protective over their strawberries and would probably force some kale onto me instead. Not that there was anything wrong with Kale-I was just in the mood for Oreos or something else that was terrible for me. When I arrived I was disappointed to find that all of the Oreos were finished, but excited when I realized that there were still some fruit snacks. I grabbed three packs and a banana so that the meal would at least have some nutritional value and ran back to where Will was waiting for me, stopping on the way to update Angie and Zoey and give them a hug. Angie also gave me a couple of her trail mix bars when I told her what I was bringing. It was only supposed to be a two hour long trip, but I wanted to bring extra food in case we found Apollo and actually persuaded him to help us. It wasn't like we'd be able to come back to camp to restock before we went to rescue Dana. Of course, that was quite a big if. If Apollo didn't agree to help us we were pretty much out of ideas.

I walked back into the cave to find that Will waiting in the chariot. He was still staring at python and was playing with his camp necklace. He had one bead less than Percy did. Will was wearing an ugly sweater with snowmen who were smoking pipes that looked like candy canes over his camp shirt and a pair of dark wash jeans. I climbed on and we were off. The 'flight' was pretty uneventful. Will and I didn't really know each other so we didn't talk much outside of me giving him some of my granola bars. Will was pretty fidgety, I imagine that he was nervous to meet Apollo. Percy'd told me about the first time he met Poseidon, and I'd heard all about how much pressure Angie felt like she was under from Athena. Regardless of whether or not the Gods themselves knew or cared about it, being a demigod was very stressful. I remembered Percy saying that the first titan war could have been completely avoided if Hermes had spent a little bit more time with his children, and I thought that was true for all of the Gods. Now, Angie was almost resentful of one of her siblings because they got a little bit more attention and I knew that there was no way she was the only child that felt slighted. Around seventy-five percent of the demigods currently at Camp Half-Blood had never been on a quest. That was part of the reason I was so panicked over not being able to hear the spirit of the oracle-for many of them successfully completing a quest would be the only time they over got to feel like a hero, and if I couldn't give out quests, then what good was I? As much as I liked to fool myself, nobody would cry if I suddenly disappeared from camp, never to return. I wasn't camp royalty like Percy or Annabeth. Every special thing that I'd gotten to be a part of in the last year would vanish. Maybe they'd even get the Hypnos cabin to blank my memory and I'd be forced to live the rest of my life blindly following my mortal parents. I shuddered at the thought, which caught Will's attention.

"You okay?" He asked. I nodded my head to indicate that I was fine. "Please, Rachel. I'm head of the infirmary. Do you know how many people come in and try to lie about their symptoms? It's going to take more than that to fool me. Are you thirsty? Cold? If you're cold you can have my sweater. As a kid of Apollo I don't really get cold." It seemed like you could take Will out of the infirmary, but you couldn't take the infirmary out of Will.

"No, really. I'm fine. Just thinking about Apollo." He gave me a shy smile.

"Me too. You've met him before, haven't you? What's he like?" I had to pause and think of the best way to describe the sun god. I finally settled on:

"He's a lot to handle. He thinks he's much better at haikus than he is." That made Will laugh. "What's so funny?"

"I think those exact words might have been on my world literature grade report last year." His comment made me start laughing too, and with that the tension was broken. The two of us spent the rest of the rest of the time jabbering on about everything from what the best flavor of fruit snack was-it was definitely not orange, to Nico-how insane he'd been in the battle against the titans, to which child of Ares would win in a gladiatorial-style match-we both decided that it would come down to either Clarisse or Sherman, she was quicker but he was stronger, and we only stopped when the island came into view.


	16. Chapter 16

I could feel Apollo's presence before I could see him. Something about the air felt warmer, softer. It felt like I was being hugged by my childhood blanket. I recognized this as a stronger version of what I usually felt in my head when I reached out for him, but Will just looked nauseas.

"Is that him?" He asked, pointing to the blond head that had just come into view.

"Yeah," I responded, but I needn't have. Apollo was pacing next to his sun chariot and checking a watch on his left arm. He looked up as we got closer to the ground.

"Finally!" He shouted when we landed. Apollo ran over to where we'd crashed and gave me a hug. "You're dismissed," he said to the Anemoi. They were gone before I could blink. Will was hesitating, standing behind me with a slightly panicked look on his face. It looked like he couldn't decide if he wanted to punch Apollo, hug him, or run as far as he could in the opposite direction.

"Lord Apollo," I said, figuring that if Will wasn't going to introduce himself someone had to. "This is Will…"

"Solace. I know." Apollo interrupted. "Nora's child. One of my better healers. Aren't you going to say hello?" Apollo asked opening his arms for a hug with smile. Will needed no more prompting; the next second he was wrapped in the sun god's arms. Apollo ruffled his hair and the two separated. Looking at the two of them next to each other, the resemblance was shocking. Will had his father's curly, blonde-but-verging-on-golden hair, bright sky blue eyes and blinding smile. The only obvious difference between the two was that Will had a slight dusting of freckles across his nose. Will was probably around 15, and since Apollo preferred to look around 18, he looked like his older brother, not father.

"How's it going, kiddo?" He asked.

"Umm. Pretty well. Good. Yeah. I guess." Will rambled incoherently. Apollo laughed and ruffled his hair again.

"So I guess you didn't get my talent for words, then." He responded teasingly. Will looked offended for a moment, then started laughing.

"I don't think, no. " Then, after a moment he shyly added. "I don't think I got your musical talent or archery either. And definitely not prophecy. But I'm head of the infirmary at camp, so, I mean, I probably got some of your healing abilities."

"Some? Kid, I've been watching over you. Don't sell yourself short. You're only of the better healers Camp Half-Blood has seen." Will seemed to glow after Apollo spoke.

"But now it's time to get to business, yes? Get in." He gestured to his sun chariot, currently in the form of a red Ferrari. "We have to move quickly to get to Quebec and rescue your friend."

"Dad. Sir. Lord Apollo. …"

"Dad is fine, Will."

"You know wha?"

"I'm the God of Prophecy. Do I have to spell it out for you?" Apollo thought for a moment. "I know why you're here.

I can and want to help her.

I am really cool."

Will and I looked at each other, both cringing from Apollo's poetry and excited that he wanted to help. I grabbed our backpack's from Chiron's chariot as Will got into the passenger seat of the car. I sat down in the back, and pulled out a peanut butter and chocolate chip granola bar. Apollo was already seated, so as soon as I gave him a thumbs-up we were off.

"We're going to have to go the long way. The mortals would get confused if sunrise didn't happen for one day, so you two have a couple hours to do whatever before we get there," Apollo told us once we in the air.

All was silent for an hour or so, or until something occurred to me. "Lord Apollo, my powers of prophecy aren't working."

"Really? Hmm. I know my father placed a blockade between Olympus and you guys, but I didn't think that he would stop that too. I'll try to talk some sense into him."

"Speaking of," Will asked, "Shouldn't you not be allowed to have us with you right now?"

"Probably."

"Well, isn't Zeus going to be mad at you? Won't you be punished?"

"Probably."

"Then why are you doing this? Do you want to end up trapped at camp like Mr. D?"

"Will, I'm your Father, so we're pretty similar I'd say. If someone was dying, and you knew that you could save her, wouldn't you?"


	17. Chapter 17

"Will, I'm your father, so we're probably pretty similar. If someone was dying and you knew that you could save them, wouldn't you?" That seemed to answer Will's question, as he didn't respond.

"And besides, he's already punished me. I'm not sure what he could do now that could be worse than what he already did." Apollo added under his breath after a moment.

"What do you mean?" Will asked. Realizing that the opposite of what Will probably wanted to hear from his father was his complaining about Zeus taking away his sex life, I tried to change the subject.

"Lord Apollo, what's your plan for when we get there?"

"Plan?" Apollo responded, taking his hands off of the wheel to stroke his imaginary beard. This caused the chariot to swerve until Will grabbed the wheel and steadied it. "I figure I'll grab your friend and leave."

I shouted: "That's it?" at the same time as Will responded, outraged, "You'll grab her?"

"One at a time. Will, you first. My kids always get to go first."

"You said that you'd grab her. What do you expect us to do, just sit outside in the car like when my mom's picking up groceries? Lo- Dad, we can help you! I've been training for something like this since I was 13!"

"Will, that's only two years ago. Did you even bring any weapons?" Apollo took Will's non-response as his answer. "And besides, who says I want you guys to stay parked outside? Sunrise doesn't just stop in Quebec."

I think I got what Apollo was implying at the same time that Will did.

"But I can't even drive a car!" He said nervously.

"This is much easier than that," Apollo responded reassuringly. "There's nothing for you to crash into up here."

"But what about what happened when you let Thalia drive?"

"Well I didn't know she was afraid of heights now did I? Besides, you're mine. You'll know what to do."

Will didn't seem to be particularly reassured, but he nodded his head shakily and managed to whisper "okay."

The chariot was quiet again after that for several hours. Or at least, it was for me. I fell asleep in the back seat. What can I say; long car rides must be my kryptonite. I've never managed to stay awake for a single one. Apparently it made no difference if the car ride was in the sky. As I was waking up, I decided that the car felt colder. Which was a weird thing to feel when in the Sun Chariot. I sat up, only to realize that there was only one blonde head in front of me.

"Will?" I asked.

"Hey Rachel," he responded, voice shaking.

"How's it going up there?" I asked, unsure of what else to say.

"Um. Not bad I guess?"

"Where's Apollo?"

"Finding Dana."

"Oh, right. I suppose that was a stupid question. How long ago did he leave?"

"Not too long. Maybe 5 minutes? I think we're still over North America so it can't have been too long."

"That's probably what woke me up then." Will didn't respond for a while, so decided to see if I could figure out where we were flying over. It looked like a lot of empty field space, so I decided that it was probably somewhere in the Midwest. Somewhere like Idaho or the part of Illinois that isn't Chicago.

"You should probably clear out the back seat. We don't know when Apollo's going to return, and he'll probably want Dana to lie down."

"That's a good point," I told him. I pushed everything that I'd taken out of my bag back into it and climbed into the front seat.

"I hope he's ok," Will said sullenly after another long, awkward silence.

"Lord Apollo's a really powerful God. It'll take more than Khione to hurt him."

"I know, but just waiting up here is torturous. I wish he'd let us come with him."

"Will, no offense, but you're not a very good fighter. You said that yourself. Don't you think you would have been more of a hindrance than a help?"

"I mean probably. But you can't deny that this is awful. Don't you want to know what's going on down there?"

"Of course I do. I'm the oracle. I hate not knowing anything."

"Can't you see anything?" Will asked desperately.

"No," I shouted, slamming my hand down loudly onto the seat next to me. "I can't see anything. I'm totally useless."

"You're not useless, Rachel. You're…" I cut him off.  
"I'm what? That's right, nothing. I'm not a demigod. I barely know how to swing a sword. I don't know how to heal; I'm not a great strategist. Without prophecy I'm nothing."

"You know that's not true, Rachel. You went on a quest before you were the Oracle. I'm a demigod and I've never even been on a quest."

"But if I can't get the visions back you'll never get to go on a quest. A mummy was a better Oracle than I am," I responded dejectedly.

"That's not true," someone said from the back seat. I turned around to see a tanned body with a blonde head curved in the back seat around a girl that I easily recognized as Dana. Her eyes and mouth were closed, and she looked like she was painted in water color when the rest of the world was acrylic. She was still wearing the Clarion Ladies' Academy uniform, but, like the tone of her skin, it looked like most of the color had been sucked out.

"Lord Apollo!" Will and I cried out, excited that he was back.

"That was quick. What happened down there?" I asked.

"I cant talk right now. I have to concentrate. Both of you, close your eyes and look away."

"But Dad I'm driv-"

"Just do it Will." Something about the tone of Apollo's voice was so unlike the joking, happy version of him that we'd seen earlier that if left no room for argument. For a moment, the world around us felt suffocatingly warm, and even through closed eyes I could make out the flash of gold.

"You can open your eyes now," Apollo said at last. As I was opening my eyes and turning around, I heard a female voice say:

"C...C...Cold. It's so c...cold. Where am I?"


	18. Chapter 18

"Dana! Are you okay?"

"Rachel? Where are…" She looked around and noticed Lord Apollo. "Who…who are you? Why am I so cold?" I suddenly remembered that the Dana that we'd tried to talk to about the Gods was actually Medea in disguise, so the real Dana still thought that everything was normal.

"Dana, we're taking you somewhere safe. We'll explain everything when we get there for now…Will, would you give her your sweater?"

"She doesn't need a sweater when she's next to the God of Heat," Apollo said.

"The God of Heat?" she asked, confused.

"It's a nickname," I quickly clarified. "He's just always really warm. He's not wrong, though. If you're cold you should lean against him. Trust me, it'll help."

Dana looked at me skeptically, but leaned into Apollo's opened arms.

"Trust me, it will all make sense when we get to camp."

"Camp? We're not going back to school? Why are we in a car? And where are we? Why does it look like we're surrounded by the sky?"

"You're not afraid of heights, are you?" I asked nervously.

"Umm. No? Not particularly, no."

"Still, you probably shouldn't look around too much. Why don't you go to sleep, Dana. The time will pass faster."

"Sleep? It's weird. I feel like I've been sleeping for a week. I was having," she paused, as if she had a hard time believing what she was about to say. "Just. The weirdest dreams. I. I think there was a snowman?" She shivered. "So cold."

"Guys," Will said. "Sorry to interrupt, but I think we're here."

"Camp?" I asked.

"No, back in Fiji."

"Fiji? You can't drive to Fiji. I thought you said we were going to a camp."

"Trust me Dana, it's just easier to not question it right now." Dana didn't seem to like that answer, but she accepted it.

Lord Apollo guided Will through the process of landing the chariot, and then opened the doors so that we could all disembark. Once we were out of the car, Apollo held his arms to the sky and called out: "Iris, Lady of the Rainbow. Come now. Thanks babe." In a matter of seconds, a rainbow started to materialize above us. The rainbow stretched down, lower and lower until it was low enough for someone to walk off of. The lady that appeared was clearly Iris. She appeared to be the human, Godly, embodiment of the rainbow. Her hair was what Percy would call "princess curls." A light lavender, or was it emerald? Maybe it was periwinkle? Every second that the light hit her hair slightly differently it appeared to be a different color. Her dress was gossamer, all colors laced together in a mesmerizing series of shimmer, swirls, and color until it faded to sparkling but see through around her bare feet. It was hard to tell where her hair ended and her dress began, and she had a silver band around her waist.

"Lord Apollo," she said, curtsying deeply. "How can I be of service?"

"Give these Demigods safe passage to Camp Half-Blood."

"It is done," she responded, finally standing up. Iris stuck her hand back towards her Rainbow, only to have it wrap first around Will, then around Dana. The three of them had started to disappear when Apollo shouted "And the Oracle! Bring her back too." The rainbow rematerialized to grab me and then the island was gone. For a second we were spinning in a whirlpool of color, then the void opened and we were back at camp. In the middle of the Arena, to be exact. Luckily, it appeared to be the Demeter cabin's turn for sword practice. The Demeter cabin seemed to be ignoring their weapons in favor of questioning Katie about her vacation with the Stolls. Which, if I recalled Annabeth's explanation clearly, was more of a siege than anything else.

"Rachel! Will!" Katie shouted once she saw us, seemingly looking for any distraction to avoid her sibling's scrutiny. She walked up to us and then added, quietly, "Is that Dana?" I nodded in response.

"We're going to go take her to Annabeth." Dana still seemed pretty out of it, but she was looking quizzically in our direction, so she probably understood that we were talking about her.

Katie waved goodbye and walked back in the lion's den that was her siblings and their questions while Will and I guided Dana towards the big house. When we reached it, we sat her down on one of the faded leather couches in the rec room. I decided to get her a cup of hot cocoa from the mess hall, and Will left to gather the Camp Half Blood's unofficial strategy council. When I returned, Chiron and Grover were already sitting around the pinochle table. I took my place slightly off to the side, and waited for the other chosen few to trickle in. First Annabeth and Thalia sat down, Annabeth shooting me a kind, silent smile as she slid into the seat into the seat next to Grover. Next Nico arrived, shadow traveling into the one seat that was left in the shadow for him. Then Katie and Travis, holding hands and with Connor trailing behind. Clarisse, Angie, Zoey, and Will brought up the rear. Angie and Zoey weren't usually on the war council, but as the two of them knew Dana and had been there when Medea threatened us everyone agreed that they should come. Everyone was chattering quietly while we waited for everyone to arrive. Once Will closed the door Chiron banged a gavel that Katie brought back from a Model United Nations conference. The room went silent.

Annabeth looked around, confused. "Where's Dana?"

"She's on one of the couches next door. I thought the meeting might be a bit much for her right now. She still doesn't know that she's a Demigod."

"Who wants to tell her?" Grover asked, nibbling on a can of Chef Boyardee's Ravioli.

"I think we should," Zoey answered. "I mean, she's been through hell and that's not really likely to end any time soon. At least she already knows us."

"Rachel, are you okay with that? I don't want to force you out of the meeting if you should be here. Have you seen anything recently? How's your prophecy?"

"You mean my lack thereof? Still lacking. I don't think there's anything I could say that you don't already know or that Will couldn't fill you in on."

Will nodded earnestly, so Chiron beckoned for the three of us to rise and go next door.

"The Clarion Gang's back together again!" Zoey said gleefully, grabbing our hands as we walked towards Dana.


	19. Chapter 19

"Hey, Dana," Zoey said softly. "How are you feeling? Are you warming up?"

"Yes. Thanks for all the blankets. Rachel said that this was a camp. Why are so many people here even though it's not summer? Are there camps that aren't summer camps? What happened to me? Where are my parents? Do they know where I am? What about schoo-"

"Dana, one at a time," Angie said, interrupting the flow of questions.

"Sorry," she said, smiling sheepishly. "I guess there's just so much that I'm confused about…"

"That's why we came in here. Don't worry about school. Your parents probably think you're still there. You were gone for a little over a week, if Medea is to be believed. You can go back soon. But first, we need to talk to you about what happened to you."

"Oh, God, Rachel," Dana said, putting her head in her arms. "Is this the part where you tell me that aliens are real and then you decide whether or not to take out your Neuralyzer and erase my memory?"

"We're not the Men in Black, Dana. No one's going to erase your memory. And as far as I know Aliens aren't real. The Greek Gods, however, are."

"You're supposed to ease into that, Rachel," Angie said, elbowing me in my side.

"I thought that was a pretty good transition, actually," Zoey said, defending me.

"Back up. The Greek Gods?" Dana asked, cutting off Zoey and Angie's squabbling.

"Yeah. They're alive and well. They've moved with the center of the civilized world. Now they live above the Empire State Building. We think you're a Demigod, the child of a mortal and a god, but you haven't been claimed yet so we don't know which God or Goddess. Angie is a child of Athena, and Zoey is a daughter of Hypnos."

"What about you, are you a…Demigod?" Dana asked like she couldn't believe that she wasn't still asleep.

"No, I'm not. I'm just a mortal, but I carry the spirit of the Oracle of Delphi."

"This…this is a lot to take in. I was raised Catholic. Does this mean that my faith is wrong?" The three of us looked at each other uncomfortably.

"I think only you can decide where you draw the line," Zoey said at last. "If our Gods are real, I see no reason why any other Gods couldn't be." Dana seemed to think that this was an acceptable answer as she nodded slightly.

"But how does that explain what happened to me? Why was it so cold?"

"We're still not exactly sure, to tell you the truth. Or, we're pretty sure about what happened, we're just a little bit fuzzy on the why," Angie said. Over the next couple of minutes, she explained what happened with Cora, Medea, how Dana ended up at Boreas' palace, and her subsequent healing at Apollo's hand.

"This is too weird," Dana responded once Angie had finished. Suddenly, a green glowing leaf appeared over Dana's head.

"All welcome Dana Kent, Daughter of Demeter."


End file.
